Hats Off In Wonderland
by MangaAngel82
Summary: Alicia finds herself in a bizarre world alongside a man she had been dreaming about.


Hats Off In Wonderland

By: Jennie D.

Chapter One

As if she had no control over her body, she walked towards the unknown gentleman. It was as if she were being pulled; though not against her will, like a magnet she was drawn to him. Eyes affixed on her destination, unblinkingly, locked with his. The moment she drew near to him, they wrapped into an embrace.

"All will be as it should," she said. Then he leaned in and their kiss met.

Alicia woke in surprise, drenched in sweat. _What was that? WHO was that?_ Unanswered questions spiraled through her mind. She raised her hand to her mouth in remembrance. She shook her head to clear the fog in her mind. "I have to get going or I will be late." As usual, Alicia had a hard time making any appointment.

"You'll be late to your own funeral one day," her mother would tease.

Today she could not afford to be late. _If I am late one more time, I'll lose my job._ She hurried through her apartment, getting dressed. She pulled out a blue and white Lolita dress she had bought at an anime convention last spring, along with blue and white-stripped knee socks and black converse tennis shoes. She put on the blue bloomers with frills at the thighs that matched, just in case there was a strong gust of wind as she stood outside of Otaku Outfitters.

She quickly made large curls in her hair, put rouge on her cheeks, and put the black ribbon choker that her mother gave her, a birthday present, around her neck as the finishing touches. She grabbed a piece of toast and walked out her apartment door. As she walked hurriedly down the sidewalk she placed an oversized pocket watch at her waist, pinning it to the apron of her dress.

This was her constant routine, every after noon. She would run as fast as she could, barely getting there with a couple minutes past. Her co-worker Janette would wave at her a half of a block away, encouraging her to run faster. She would walk to the back of the store to the "Jack-Harkness-want-to-be" of a store manager's office and clock in for her 6-hour shift. Howard would glare at her as if looking for a reason to evict her from her position. She would smile half-heartedly and he would narrow his beady eyes as she walks to her post.

Janette grabbed her by the arm walking to the storefront with Alicia. "You dressed as Kagura again I see," she didn't even pass Janette a glance as she smirks.

"Every one loves a villain…or should I say villainess." She laughed.

"No. No they really don't," Alicia chuckled. "But you seem to always choose your 'Pick 3 Villians' Kagura, Junko Enoshima, and Eto Yoshimura."

"Ooooh, I love One-Eyed Owl."

They both laughed. "You have a screw loose, you know?"

"Thank ya. Thank ya very much." They laughed again right before Janette stopped dead in her tracks, tilted her head, and looked as if she were looking behind Alicia.

Alicia turned on her heels to try to see what her friend was looking at. Her eyes scanned the whole street. There were quite a few people there, but nothing looked out of the ordinary. "What is it," she asked, "what's wrong?"

"There was a weird looking man standing a little more than a block away and he seemed like he was staring at you."

"Really? What did he look like?"

"Not really sure. My guess he was wearing one of those pixie cut silver hair anime wigs we sell."

"Hm…well I don't see anything. It's probably nothing."

"You're probably right," Janette said as they continued their shift. Though, it didn't stop the feeling of unease she had.

It was her turn to be the last one leaving. Which meant she had to clean any debris from inside and out of the store. She also had to clean the windows and put back any returned items. She straightened the business cards beside the cash register and was about to dust the counters when Howard told her she could go.

The moment she exited a soft and warm wind brushed her face. _It's such a beautiful night_, she thought, closing her eyes as she took it in. She turned toward the direction of her apartment and followed down the sidewalk. The street was vacant, not the hustle and bustle it was earlier that day. She preferred the quiet. She felt as though she had plenty of energy despite the fact she had just got off work.

As she was passing the alley, she noticed a bright shine out of the corner of her eye. Turning towards the light, she felt as if the light of the moon were emitting from something lying on the brick pavement. When she came to it, she kneeled down to get a closer look. Picked it up._ A pearl? Did someone drop this?_ She looked all around her. A clatter came from further down the alley.

"Hello," she called out. "Is someone there?" Although every instinct in her was telling her to get out of there, curiosity got the better of her. She eased further down the alley on alert, ready for anything, she thought. Another clatter. She continued down the alley till she came to an opened area. It was very odd, as if it were designed intentionally. _Whoever would put a shop in the middle of a bunch of apartment buildings? _She noticed something in the dusty window of the shop. A cat. She wondered on how the cat came to be in the obviously forgotten shop in the middle of nowhere. It looked as if it called out to her. She decided it would be okay to check on the cat, just to make sure it wasn't in distress or starving.

She turned the knob of the door and entered. She was bewildered when she did because it was as if the inside did not match what she expected. It didn't look like a shop. It didn't look like an apartment building either. Instead it looked as if it were an abandoned high-rise building, unfinished. She turned all around her in disbelief. There, what seemed to be the center of the room, the cat was sitting on a small rug. A soft mew came from it and then a rolling meow.

"Hey there, kitty. What are you doing in here?" As she grew closer to the cat the scene was changing right before her eyes. The cat seemed to have turned to smoke and when her feet touched the rug, it was as if she were being pulled through the floor that wasn't a floor anymore. She was falling. The scene kept changing. She scolded herself because she should be terrified. _Curiouser and curiouser_, she thought as the hole it self seemed like a hole someone would have drilled with big machinery as if looking for minerals or something. Curiouser still as the hole dissolved and it were as if she were falling through the sky now, passing hurriedly by pillows of clouds. Until finally PLOP.

Her derriere had plopped onto a winged chair.

Puzzled she was as it looked as if she were sitting at a dinner table. But what was curiouser still was the people at the other end of the table, staring at her. A man hunched over the table with a silver spoon in his mouth, playing with what looked like action figures. A homely looking lady that could pass as a librarian, with a sleepy dazed off expression on her face. Then she turned her gaze to who was obviously the host of the soiree. He was sitting in a dining chair. Looking him up and down, he was dressed in a slim fit sport coat. The trousers matched but not in the way she would have expected because the coat was solid and the trousers were pinstriped. He was, however, wearing a t-shirt and a fiddler cap.

He was sitting there sipping on warm tea, as if he weren't really paying attention. She let out a timid gasp.

"It's you!"


End file.
